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In the eyes of Natalia Molina and third-generation Mexican American, the most memorable highlight of the World Series didn't happen during the nail-biting final game last Saturday, when her squad pulled off multiple death-defying comeback feat after another before winning in extra innings against the Toronto Blue Jays.

It happened a game earlier, when two supporting players, Kike Hernández and Miguel Rojas, pulled off a thrilling, game-winning play that at the same time upended many harmful stereotypes promoted about Hispanic people in the past decades.

The moment in itself was breathtaking: the outfielder charged in from the outfield to catch a ball he at first lost in the bright lights, then threw it to second base to secure another, decisive out. the second baseman, positioned nearby, caught the ball just a split second before a runner barreled into him, knocking him backwards.

This was not merely a remarkable sporting achievement, perhaps the key turn in the series in the team's favor after appearing for much of the series like the underdog team. To her, it was thrilling, politically and culturally, a much-required morale boost for the community and for Los Angeles after months of immigration raids, troops monitoring the neighborhoods, and a steady drumbeat of negativity from official sources.

"The players presented this counter-narrative," said Molina. "The world saw Latinos showing an contagious pride and joy in what they do, being leaders on the team, exhibiting a different kind of confidence. They're energetic, they're cheering, they're removing their shirts."

"This represented such a juxtaposition with what we observe on the news – raids, Latinos detained and pursued. It is so simple to be demoralized right now."

Not that it's entirely simple to be a Dodgers supporter nowadays – for her or for the many of other Latinos who show up faithfully to home games and occupy as many as 50% of the venue's 50,000 spots per game.

A Mixed Relationship with the Organization

When aggressive enforcement operations began in Los Angeles in June, and military units were sent into the area to react to resulting protests, two of the city's sports clubs promptly issued statements of support with affected communities – while the baseball team.

Management has said the organization want to steer clear of political issues – a view influenced, perhaps, by the reality that a sizable portion of the supporters, even some Hispanic fans, are followers of current leaders. After considerable external demands, the team subsequently pledged $one million in support for families directly impacted by the raids but issued no official criticism of the government.

Official Event and Past Legacy

Three months earlier, the team did not delay in agreeing to an offer to celebrate their previous World Series win at the White House – a move that local writers described as "disappointing … spineless … and contradictory", considering the Dodgers' pride in having been the first professional team to end the racial segregation in the mid-20th century and the regular references of that legacy and the principles it represents by officials and present and past players. Several team members including the coach had voiced unwillingness to go to the White House during the initial period but either changed their minds or gave in to pressure from team management.

Business Ownership and Fan Conflicts

A further issue for supporters is that the team are owned by a large investment group, Guggenheim Partners, whose investments, as per media reports and its own published financial documents, involve a stake in a detention company that runs detention facilities. Guggenheim's leadership has said many times that it aims to stay out of politics, but its detractors say the silence – and the investment – are their own form of acquiescence to current policies.

These factors add up to significant mixed feelings among Hispanic fans in particular – sentiments that emerged even in the euphoria of this season's hard-won World Series triumph and the ensuing outpouring of team pride across Los Angeles.

"Can one to root for the team?" local columnist one observer reflected at the start of the playoffs in an elegant essay pondering on "Dodger blue in our veins, but doubt in our hearts". He couldn't finally bring himself to watch the championship, but he still cared strongly, to the point that he decided his personal protest must have brought the squad the fortune it required to win.

Separating the Players from the Owners

Numerous supporters who have Galindo's reservations appear to have concluded that they can keep to support the players and its roster of international stars, including the Asian megastar a key player, while pouring scorn on the team's business leadership. At no place was this more clear than at the championship parade at the home venue on Monday, when the packed audience roared in support of the coach and his athletes but booed the executive and the top official of the ownership group.

"The executives in formal attire do not get to take our players from us," Molina said. "We have been with the Dodgers longer than they have."

Historical Context and Neighborhood Effect

The problem, though, goes further than just the organization's current proprietors. The agreement that moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to the city in the 1950s involved the municipality demolishing three working-class Latino communities on a elevated area overlooking the city center and then transferring the land to the organization for a small part of its market value. A track on a 2005 album that documents the events has an low-income parking attendant at the venue revealing that the home he lost to removal is now third base.

A prominent commentator, possibly the region's most influential Latino writer and broadcaster, sees a more troubling side to the long, problematic relationship between the franchise and its audience. He calls the Dodgers the popular snack of baseball, "a corporate entity with an excessive, even harmful following by too many Latinos" that has been exploiting its fans for decades.

"They've put one arm around Hispanic fans while picking their pockets with the other for so much time because they have been able to get away with it," Arellano noted over the warmer months, when demands to avoid the team over its absence of response to the raids were contradicted by the awkward fact that turnout at matches remained steady, even at the peak of the demonstrations when downtown LA was subject to a evening restriction.

International Stars and Community Bonds

Separating the squad from its corporate owners is not a easy task, {